onceuponatimefandomcom-20200223-history
Darkness
The Darkness, and its host the Dark One, is a magical entity featured on ABC's Once Upon a Time. It débuts in the first episode of the first season. History Nimue later created a vault for her own usage, and emerged as the Dark One to the public from this vault. She has turned her dark soul into a curse that allows her to live on beyond the death of her physical body, inhabiting the soul of whoever kills the current Dark One with the dagger, gifting that person with the Dark One's power. While the Darkness originated as Nimue's soul, it grows more powerful by assimilating the darkness of each soul that it passes on to as part of the Dark One curse. Because of this, the Darkness can manifest itself as every Dark One there ever was, even to the point of manifesting as all of them at the same time. Merlin takes the other half of Excalibur and binds Nimue to it - thus creating the Dark One's Dagger. Eventually, Nimue and Merlin meet again, but Merlin, in a moment of utter grief, becomes overpowered by Nimue, who transforms him into a tree. At some point, Merlin had created a special hat, capable of absorbing and accumulating magic. The hat is protected by the Apprentice from each person that takes on the Dark One's powers. Every Dark One tries to steal the hat, but none of them succeed. One day, the latest Dark One, Zoso, arrives in an attempt to open the guarded relic, only to be blasted away by the artifact's magic. Once the Apprentice informs the Dark One why his mission will never succeed, a beaten Zoso teleports away. Decades later, while Zoso is still the Dark One, the kingdom resorts to using children as soldiers in another Ogre Wars. Rumplestiltskin fears for the possibility of losing his child and flees away with him. But they are approached by a mysterious old man, who steers him towards stealing a magical dagger which can control the Dark One. Rumplestiltskin decides to steal the dagger from the Duke of the Frontlands, with the hopes of protecting Baelfire and turning the Dark One into a force for good. Once alone, Rumplestiltskin summons the Dark One and he stabs the entity with the dagger in a fit of blind rage. But he discovers the Dark One is the old man who told him about the dagger. Then Rumplestiltskin's own name replaces Zoso's on the dagger, and he gains the powers of the Dark One. }} }} To stop this from happening, the Apprentice absorbs the Darkness out of his heart and into the hat. However, the Darkness breaks free and attacks him. Emma repels it with a blast of light magic and the Darkness flees into town, but before she can follow, the Apprentice tells her about the Sorcerer's past dealings with the Darkness and how the Dark One was born from it. On the streets, Emma and her parents join Regina and Robin Hood as they look for the Darkness, which has seemingly vanished. However, when the Darkness tries infiltrating Regina and removing the light from her, Emma uses the dagger to bind it to her soul and become the new Dark One. She then vanishes into thin air while the dagger drops to the ground, revealing her name is now on it. }} Throughout the Camelot quest, the main goal of the heroes is to destroy the Darkness by finding Merlin. Once they succeed in doing so, Merlin reveals that he will be able to rid Emma of the Darkness once they reforge Excalibur using the Promethean Flame. While Emma and Merlin search for the Flame, Merlin reveals the truth behind the Darkness's origins, and Emma ends up in a battle against herself when the Darkness creates a mental image of Nimue in her mind. In order to get the dagger and reforge Excalibur, Arthur teams up with Zelena and gets her to use the tether spell Merlin used on the dagger to attach Merlin himself to the other half of Excalibur, which effectively creates a second Dark One. Merlin is able to overcome Arthur's commands, and Emma and Hook get Excalibur back. Following this encounter, Hook's neck gets a minor cut from Excalibur, which Emma easily heals. However, a cut from Excalibur can never be fully healed, and the cut reopens just before Emma can reforge the sword, causing Hook to begin to die. Unwilling to let him die, Emma takes both halves of Excalibur and uses her magic to tether Hook to the sword instead of Merlin. The Darkness mysteriously flies out of Merlin as he says that it is too late, and after Emma is done with the transfer, her outfit magically changes and Hook is teleported away, emerging from the Vault as the second Dark One. }} Known Dark Ones *'Nimue' (Original Dark One) *'Ten unknown Dark Ones'"Nimue", Once Upon a Time, ABC. *'Gorgon' *'Zoso' *Rumplestiltskin / Mr. Gold (Darkness removed) *'Emma Swan' *'Killian Jones' Trivia |-|On-Screen Notes= On-Screen Notes *True love's kiss will not break a Dark One's curse if the Dark One likes the power and does not want to give it up.https://twitter.com/AndrewChambliss/status/650845303487131648 When the afflicted wants it, it is no longer a curse. *According to Cora, when The Dark One is killed without the dagger, he/she will expel the powers of the Darkness. *Dark Ones don't need sleep as the power of the Darkness keeps them energized. Dark Ones such as Rumplestiltskin and Emma Swan developed hobbies to pass the time instead; Rumplestiltskin spun straw into gold and Emma made dreamcatchers. *The waterfall in the pocket dimension inside the Vault of the Dark One is liquid darkness.File:504IWasWondering.png *All Dark Ones find it irresistible to make deals. *The Darkness is immortal. This is a result of Nimue drinking the waters of the Holy Grail. *The Darkness appears in the title card for "Birth". Appearances *Dark One Rumplestiltskin appears in Henry's storybook in "Dreamcatcher".File:505RumplestiltskinStorybook.png File:505BelleRumpleStorybook.png References Category:Creatures Category:Season One Characters Category:Season Two Characters Category:Season Three Characters Category:Season Four Characters Category:Season Five Characters Category:Once Upon a Time Characters